Serious, Unresolved Failures

BY RIC DAVIDGE, CHAIR, AND GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS STAFF

“New Documents Detail Ongoing VA Failures on Gulf War Veterans’ Health,” read the headline on a website that reported the long-awaited release of the minutes of the most recent meeting of the congressionally chartered Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses. It seems that the June 18-19, 2012, meeting of the RAC, which is housed under the Department of Veterans Affairs, was highly contentious.

“For the first time, the meeting minutes show in painful detail how RAC members spent much of their time… highlighting serious research, management, and oversight failures at VA related to the health of Gulf War veterans,” the web story read.
These include a detailed accounting of serious, unresolved VA failures, including a unanimous finding of “no confidence” in VA’s handling of Gulf War Illness (GWI); the VA’s attempted staff whitewash of a strategic research plan on GWI for the VA; why the Office of Public Health has yet to contract with the Institute of Medicine to determine rates of multiple sclerosis in recent veterans; and serious concerns about a new VA national survey of 30,000 Gulf War veterans that can be more damaging than helpful in its proposed form.

Because the VA totally disregarded all of their recommendations, the committee members resigned en masse. The frustration of these veterans, many of whom are suffering from maladies due to multiple exposures in Gulf War I, is understandable given how hard they had tried to work within the system only to be cast aside.

Since the Vietnam War the VA has all too often adopted the role of adversary, initially disregarding claims of illnesses Vietnam vets believed could only be linked to time spent in Southeast Asia fighting for Uncle Sam.

And when we saw our kids and our grandkids come down with maladies never before seen in our families or our spouses’ families—birth defects and odd cancers and learning disabilities—and said that Agent Orange might be the culprit, for years the VA shrugged until Congress, pressed by VVA and eventually other veterans service organizations, passed the Agent Orange Act in 1991.

And still the VA—and the Department of Defense—fought us as if we were the enemy.
When some of us complained about an invisible wound of war, something in our head that in earlier wars was known as soldier’s heart or shell shock or combat fatigue, the VA often denied that such an anxiety disorder even existed, and insisted instead that those who complained were slackers, fakers, or liars.

This anti-veteran attitude has been endemic in the Veterans Benefits Administration for far too long. It’s not that individual employees have this attitude. Rather, it’s a corporate culture strongly promoted by old-line management that affected the many by punishing those VA employees—like Maude deVictor—for doing the right thing. Many were so immersed in that sick corporate culture that they were no longer conscious of it. Some VA secretaries—Jesse Brown and Tony Principi come to mind—attempted to tackle the prevailing mindset, but with only limited success.

The current secretary, the excellent Eric K. Shinseki, and his fine undersecretary for benefits, Allison Hickey, both former generals, have been having a much greater impact. It is our passionate hope that they can change the attitude among the minions in the VBA. This will lead to greater client satisfaction by clearing up the claims backlog that has been a thorn in the side of VA administrators and veterans.

Shinseki says it best when he tells VA employees: “Don’t worry about doing every little thing right. Just do the right thing for the veteran and the rest will fall into place.”

VETERANS & SMALL BUSINESS

One place in the VA that has not heeded the Secretary’s advice used to have a reputation for helping service-disabled veterans, but that abruptly changed direction several years ago.

The VA has allowed the mess at the Center for Veterans Enterprise to continue unabated. Thousands of service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses have been inappropriately rejected for verification or re-verification. This has cost them millions of dollars in potential contracts and subcontracts. Many veteran business owners now consider CVE an enemy.

Although VVA and other veterans organizations have tried to bring about change, we were told in a work session in December that the earliest we would see a significant change in CVE regulations and practices would be July or August of 2014. Waiting another year and a half for these same people to clean up their mess is just unacceptable.

The purpose of the verification process was to prevent fraud. However, the CVE has not caught any big fraudulent business. Those who have been caught, tried, and convicted were uncovered by service-disabled veterans who filed protests or who brought it to the attention of enforcement entities.

VVA has complained repeatedly to the VA leadership about this situation to no effect. Therefore, we are now asking Congress and the President to intervene.

VA TRADEMARKS “GI BILL”

The term “GI Bill” is now a registered trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the VA is its sole owner.   On April 26, 2012, President Obama signed Executive Order 13607, directing the VA, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Education to undertake measures to “stop deceptive and misleading” promotional efforts that target the GI Bill educational benefits of service members, veterans, and family members and survivors.

One of the key components of the order was for the VA to register the term “GI Bill” as a trademark in order to protect individuals and ensure they are directed to the right resources to make informed decisions. 

QUE SERA, SERA

The outlook for a budget compromise in Congress remains murky, despite the last-minute deal that stopped the huge sequestration of funds. No doubt they will come to an agreement before we all fall over the “new fiscal cliff” at the end of March.

Even if sequestration were to come to pass, however, the VA health care budget will barely be nicked, although take-home pay will likely be hit by several hundred dollars or more. However, money for the

Veterans Benefits Administration will be significantly reduced. This will slow down the adjudication of compensation and pension claims even more than is the case today.

Perhaps we need a more rational way of electing those who govern us, such as shorter campaign seasons and agreement among candidates to stage town hall events and debates to let their electorate learn who they are and what they stand for.

CORRECTION: In the last issue of The VVA Veteran, reference was made to S. 2147, authored by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and others. That was an error. The column should have cited S. 2241, The GI Bill Consumer Awareness Act of 2012.